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MIT Develops Camera That Records Moving Light

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has come up with some very advanced technology over the years. Recently, one of the more interesting inventions that we have come across is a super fast camera that is capable of taking videos of moving light.

According to the Scientific American blog, the camera isn't exactly a single camera, but an array of 500 sensors put together to form an imaging system that can record images at a rate of one trillion exposures a second.

Each sensor is triggered at a trillionth-of-a-second delay, and the resultant images are combined to "form a complete movie of photon movement." Ramesh Raskar, an associate professor in the MIT Media Lab explained that photons travel about one million times faster than bullets.

The researchers, part of the Media Lab’s Camera Culture group, expect that such a camera could have practical applications in medical imaging, scientific and industrial research and possibly even consumer photography.

To make it into consumer cameras. this technology has to be scaled down tremendously in order for it to be practical. But when it does appear, Raskar feels that this technology would enable photographers to simulate complex light sources that are either unavailable or too expensive to buy.